Nothing "About Cherry" is all that good

1/4/2015

The 2012 film "About Cherry" was the debut film from writer/director Stephen Elliott and although it deals pornography it is pretty tame and watered down. It plays as if it's a fairy tale as told through the diluted eyes of its main character, Angelina or Cherry.

With an impressive ensemble cast that includes James Franco, Lily Taylor, Dev Patel, and Heather Graham you would think the results would be much better. Ashley Hinshaw plays Angelina, a young beautiful blonde girl who lives with her alcoholic mother, two siblings, and her mother's abusive boyfriend. Unable to take it anymore she moves out to San Francisco with her possibly gay best friend Andrew (Patel). To make some extra money she agrees to model for a photographer. After that bad experience, she meets Frances (Franco), a slick lawyer at a nightclub who introduces her to some people at an adult film company. The business is like any other as if was a bank or a hair salon, except they make porno's. Angelina is taken on as an actress and does solos and girl on girl movies, all directed by Margaret (Graham) a lesbian in a rocky relationship. I personally have no idea what the porn industry is like but this all seems so fake and glossed over, kind of like the content they produce. Margaret develops a major crush on Cherry (Angelina's stage name) however she isn't gay or is she? It's San Francisco so anything is possible.

The movie is more about messed up personal relationships than pornography, all of which revolve around Angelina, who really isn't that interesting, to begin with. The supporting characters are loosely drawn and don't seem all that believable either. We have then force-fed a typical Hollywood style ending. Like I mentioned before the whole story could actually be a diluted fantasy all taking place within Angelina's mind, but it doesn't seem like that's what the filmmakers are going for. While watching this I thought of David Lynch's "Inland Empire" a much darker and much better film, although not exactly similar. "About Cherry is currently available on Netflix watch instantly.